GOOD DAY
Barcelona
An awful week off the pitch with the news of Eric Abidal and the outlandish insinuations of doping coming from the direction of the Spanish capital came to a relatively happy end with a 2-1 win over Getafe.
It was a match that appeared to fit a similar pattern at the Camp Nou of late - Barça creating oodles of chances but missing pretty much all of them. However, swings and roundabouts and all the kings men suggest that this iffy run in front of goal will end sooner rather than later and Barça will be back with the AlmerÃÂa / Real Madrid-style thrashings.
Real Madrid
After the 479th win in a row over Atlético Madrid, tis true that José Mourinho looked like he was about to sleep for a week as he confessed after the game, but it wasnâÂÂt the same for his players according to LLLâÂÂs comparatively untrained eyes, a team who looked fairly sprightly throughout the encounter despite the Madrid boss commentating they were all quite knackered.
Then again, all MourinhoâÂÂs men had to do was the usual in these derby affairs - turn up, start the game the strongest, score after about ten minutes, let Atlético miss a few chances, score again, let Atlético largely give up until a late goal and a desperate rally in the final few seconds.
Villarreal
It was a very 'Athletic Bilbao' goal that gave Villarreal a most unexpected win in the Basque country - a towering header from Marco Ruben from a cross.
Ivan Rakitic
A lovely strike from the Sevilla midfielder bags a victory against Valencia and continues SevillaâÂÂs decent form that sees them a near certainty for a European spot next season, especially in light of a fading fast Espanyol just one point above them.
Mallorca
The immediate reaction to all but perhaps 20,000 people in the world to a titanic clash between Mallorca vs Zaragoza is probably a giant âÂÂwhateverâ and that 'talk to the hand' gesture that the kids are so keen on these days.
Michael Laudrup certainly cared though. Before the game, the Mallorca coach was bigging up what looked like a wholly uninteresting affair as possibly the clubâÂÂs biggest match of the season. And after a 1-0 win thanks to a Jonathan De Guzman free kick, the blog can see where great Dane was coming from.
The victory puts Mallorca in ninth with 38 points and reclining legs akimbo on a footballing sun lounger going into the international break. âÂÂWe have a two week rest and we are much closer to surviving,â beamed Laudrup rubbing sunblock into Dudu AouateâÂÂs shoulders.
Levante
Admirable, brilliant, inspirational - repeat to fade. LevanteâÂÂs Champions League form - only bettered by Real Madrid and Barcelona at the moment - sees the Valencia club picking up a sixth win from nine against Deportivo and perhaps needing just six more points to stay up this season.
Osasuna
The Pamplona side broke their lamentable record this season of just one league away win before the Hércules clash by doubling their tally in a fairly surprising 4-0 victory on the east coast.
Miguel de las Cuevas
The Sporting midfielder was a very lucky bunny indeed having poked away a huge winner for his club against AlmerÃÂa, with the referee failing to notice the player controlling the ball with his arm.
Rondón
Three goals in back-to-back wins for Málaga from the big fella lifts the money-bags club off the bottom of the table and just one point from safety. That revival that everyone was expecting from Málaga looks like it is finally kicking in.
BAD DAY
Valencia
The performance from the Mestalla men was such that Unai Emery was correct with his pre-match prediction that 4-0 defeat to Zaragoza, last week, was âÂÂa disaster, but over,â as Valencia had more than enough chances to beat Sevilla on Sunday night. Instead, it was an outstanding display from the sometimes flakey Javi Varas who pulled off five show-stopping saves that lead to SevillaâÂÂs 1-0 win.
However, those two defeats to Zaragoza and now Sevilla have seen Villarreal make up the ground lost against Valencia after their own wobble a few weeks back.
Atlético Madrid
LLL was in the stands for the Rojiblancosâ fine performance two weeks ago to defeat Villarreal in a game where Diego Forlán, José Antonio Reyes and Filipe Luis were dominant. There was naff all on display from the trio on Saturday with Madrid largely snuffing out any threat on the wings and the Uruguayan fairly anonymous once again.
Teixeira Vitienes
Apparently the referee for the Madrid derby didnâÂÂt hear the racist chants from sections of the Atlético support - or he didnâÂÂt really care - meaning that no action can be taken by the Spanish FA against the Vicente Calderón club as punishment. The Rojiblancos themselves apparently failed to hear it either as there wasnâÂÂt an appeal over the stadium PA system calling for the crowd to end their abuse of the Madrid pair.
MÃÂchel
Pep Guardiola was being very kind indeed - or not noticing what happens to most of the poor sods on the bench at the Santiago Bernabeu after a season or two (if theyâÂÂre lucky) - with his prediction that âÂÂone day sooner or later, MÃÂchel will end up managing Real Madrid,â as the current Getafe boss has now racked up just the one victory in 2011 to leave the mighty blues on the edge of the relegation battle.
Ahsan Ali Syed
His side, Racing Santander, may have won but their owner who has faced a whole stack of stories concerning allegations of corruption was a big no-show at SundayâÂÂs 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad.
Deportivo
Curses! Once again Miguel Angel LotinaâÂÂs cunning plan to get a goalless draw for Deportivo was ruined by the pesky opposition scoring a goal. This week it was Levante grabbing a winner in injury time with Rubén Suárez squeezing a free kick past a hapless Daniel AranzubÃÂa.
Apathetic and grey were the words used by AS and Marca respectively to describe the home sideâÂÂs performance in the 1-0 defeat in Riazor. And that was both papers being polite.
Esteban Vigo
Although LLL feels for Hércules coach, Esteban Vigo, who was fired on Sunday night after a 4-0 home defeat by Osasuna as it wasnâÂÂt his fault the Alicante club is run by idiots, the blog is still chuffed by the news as the move probably pushes Hércules another step towards relegation.
